One of your clients is launching a new product, and your agency is in charge of coordinating an entire marketing campaign to support it. The success of this launch depends on you knowing how to create a marketing campaign plan and being able to execute it with the help of your team.
The campaign will use email newsletters, social media, blog content, and even giveaways to generate buzz around that brand new offering. You’re overseeing numerous marketing channels, different teams, and overlapping timelines.
Is your head spinning yet? We don’t blame you. Planning and managing this sort of marketing project can be dizzying, but having the right tools in your corner can help you stay on top of all of those moving parts.
Let’s talk about how to create a marketing campaign plan — and how Wrike can make the process a little less daunting.
How to find the right marketing campaign planning software
The most successful marketers don’t fly by the seat of their pants. They strategically plan the campaigns that they’re going to roll out, and they’re far more likely to be successful because of it. In fact, marketers who proactively plan projects are 356% more likely to report success.
How do you get all of your ducks in a row, rather than tackling various marketing campaign tasks willy nilly? The right marketing campaign planning software can help. Here’s what you should keep an eye out for so that you can find the solution that works best for your team.
1. Your software should clearly display task assignments
Multichannel marketing campaigns typically require a lot of cooks in the kitchen. While that provides plenty of opportunity for collaboration, it can also quickly reduce accountability.
People assume they can miss deadlines or hide behind the work of other team members. When their leaders don’t take action, that negative cycle continues — and can even sabotage your campaign. In fact, a reported 18% of leaders cite holding people accountable as their biggest weakness.
Look for a marketing plan online tool that makes it easy to break your campaign down into tasks and then assign those to specific team members.. The fact that everybody can instantly get a grasp on a task’s status improves transparency and also gives accountability a much-needed boost.
2. Your software should offer intuitive file storage
There’s a lot involved with your campaign, and it can often feel like you have images, documents, recordings, and other important assets flying everywhere.
The marketing campaign software you use should not only store all of your files, but also allow you to clearly label and sort them. This way, you and your team can always track the latest asset versions and campaign resources.
3. Your software should include timeline views
Marketers know that their projects don’t get to stretch into eternity, and that’s why 68% of survey respondents said they assign deadlines to their campaigns either most of the time or always.
But you can’t just keep an eye on that single project deadline. You also need to make sure that you’re hitting certain milestones, and to be sure that you understand the distinction between deliverable vs milestone. For example, that promotional blog post needs to be ready by the end of next week and that first email newsletter should be ready to go by the middle of the month.
Look for marketing campaign management software that offers timeline views — particularly a Gantt chart. That makes it far simpler for you to track the progress of the entire campaign, spot dependencies and snags, and keep things running smoothly.
4. Your software should be easy to use
Here’s a seemingly obvious fact that you should know: If your employees don’t understand your software, they aren’t going to use it. Unfortunately, more than half of all employees are unhappy at work because of the software that they’re required to use.
Your marketing campaign planning tool will be most useful when your entire team uses it for status updates, comments and feedback, file management, and more.
So, make sure that you look for a solution that’s user-friendly. The less intimidating your software is, the more likely it is that your team will actually stick with it.
Why Wrike is perfect as a marketing campaign planning tool
Now that you know exactly what you’re looking for in a solution, allow us to make a suggestion that will meet all of your needs (and more): Wrike. It’s a perfect fit for planning and managing all of your marketing campaigns. Here’s why.
1. Wrike makes work management seamless
Say goodbye to email threads that are impossible to sort through and revisions that get lost in the shuffle. With the ability to store all of your assets, leave comments, mention team members, and set task deadlines, overseeing every single piece of your campaign is straightforward.
And, Wrike isn't just beneficial for your internal team members. You can give your clients access (just set their Access Role accordingly) to help streamline the approval process and centralize campaign communication.
2. Wrike helps you manage your timeline
One study found that 52% of marketing firms frequently miss deadlines — and they admit that a lot of that comes back to flawed collaboration and general chaos.
Wrike’s Gantt chart creator gives you a bird’s-eye view of your entire project timeline. If a task deadline needs to be extended, all dependent tasks will automatically be bumped out without any manual effort from you.
Additionally, you can use Wrike Reports to keep a close eye on overdue tasks. You can provide nudges when necessary, and get your project back on track before those delays creep up and sabotage your entire schedule.
3. Wrike offers helpful templates to boost your planning
Every marketing campaign is different. But there are also quite a few commonalities, especially when it comes to how you plan and organize those elements.
Starting from scratch over and over again only wastes time and energy. Fortunately, Wrike offers a number of marketing-specific templates (including a marketing campaign management template) that will help you proactively plan campaigns and set yourself up for success.
Planning a marketing campaign? Wrike can help
Being a marketer is no easy task, as evidenced by the fact that one out of four marketers report that they’re either “overly stressed” or even “stressed to the max.”
When a request for a new campaign lands on your desk or in your inbox, it’s totally normal to feel intimidated by the complexities of that project.
However, the right marketing campaign planning software can help reduce that stress and bump up your confidence. With that tool in your corner, you’ll have everything you need to plan successful campaigns and then keep them on track — without breaking a sweat.
Start your free trial of Wrike and roll out your most successful marketing campaigns yet.
